Improvement in the manufacture of mortar and cement, and in material therefor



UNITED I STATES PATENT CFFIGE.

. E. A. ELLSWORTH, OF "WASHINGTON, DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA, ASSIGNOR TO HIMSELF AND LYSANDER HILL, OF ALEXANDRIA, VIRGINIA.

IMPROVEMENT IN THE MANUFACTURE OF MORTAR AND CEMENT, AND IN MATERIAL THEREFOR.

Bpecification forming part of Letters Patent No. 73,882, dated January 28, 1868.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, EDWARD A. ELLs- WORTH, of the city and county of Washing ton, in the District of Columbia, have invented a new and useful Improvement in the Mannfacture of Mortar or Cement; and I do hereby declare the following to be a full, clear, and exact description of the same, sufficient to enable those skilled in the art to which my invention appertains to fully understand and use it.

This invention consists in substituting vegetable fiber for the animal hair heretofore used in the manufacture of mortar and cement for plastering buildings, masonry, &c.

It is well known that the mortar or cement employed for such purpose, of which the principal ingredients are lime and sand, must ordinarily be strengthened by the addition of large quantities of short fine fiber incorporated with it while in a plastic condition, in order to render it tough. and self-adhesive. Up to this time the only fiber ever employed for such purpose has been short animal hair. The vast consumption of this article for this and other purposes is not only constantly diminishing the supply, but, in equal ratio, increasing the cost of it; and it has become amatter of great importance that some cheap, abundant, and, for all practical purposes, equivalent material should be discovered and applied as a substitute for the hair used in such manufacture.

Having experimented for some time with this and other substances in this connection, I have discovered that, for all practical purposes, vegetable fiber, such as manila, the fiber of grass, of some species of wood, of the various barks, of hemp, cotton, jute, 860., when reduced to a suitable degree of fineness and chopped into suitable lengths, may be employed as a substitute for such hair, forming, when mixed with the lime and sand in the same proportions and in the same manner as the hair is mixed, a strong, tough, and durable plaster, in every respect as useful as that in which hair is employed.

The fiber may be obtained from the wood or vegetable by any known or practicable process, as my invention is not limited to any particular means of producing the material. TVhen the fiber is obtained, however, I would ordinarily chop it to a length about equal to that of the hair heretofore used before incorporatin g it with the mortar.

The immense quantities in which this material may be produced, and the cheapness with which it can be manufactured into the form required for the purpose referred to, will enable it to be supplied to the market at all times, in proportion to the demand, and at a trifling cost compared with that of the article for which it is to be substituted.

Having thus described my invention, what I claim as new, and desire to secure by Letters Patent, is-

1. The use of vegetable fiber in combination with plasterers mortar and cement, substantially as and for the purpose specified.

2. Mortar or cement, when prepared with vegetable fiber, substantially as and for the purpose specified.

3. As an article of manufacture, vegetable fiber, when reduced to fine filaments and cut into short lengths, as a substitute for plasterers hair, substantially as described.

E. A. ELLSWORTH.

Witnesses:

JAMES H. GRIDLEY, NATHAN K. ELLswoRrH. a 

